Posts tagged ‘whitefish’

Ever since I moved up the ladder and we got Master Blaster as our dishwasher, the responsibility of making food for the dishwasher has all but diminished. Sure, we still make him food. But it’s not like before, when we used to make it with whatever was in the walk-in and every dinner was a delicious surprise (or, depending on the line cook, a passable offense). Nowadays, the ole Blaster asks for something and we make it. I long for ye olden days.

So last Saturday night, it was with gleeful delight that undertook the making of staff meal. Whoa, that’s a term that’s not often heard at Avec. Ruth had handed me a quart of whitefish scrap to make comida for Master Blaster, but those plans fell through, and well… everyone else benefited. Heck, I wasn’t going to let a quart of super fresh fish go to waste. And immediately I thought, “Cioppino!” except we didn’t have any other seafood other than squid, and some salt cod (in the brandade). Whatever! Not like that stopped me and Ruth from making some tasty fish soup. Version 1 (pictured above) was made on Saturday and included fideo, potato, roasted endive, and a heavy finish of pastis.

Version 2, made on Monday, had fennel, roasted endive (love that mellow bitterness!), rice, fava beans and considerably less pastis, with the addition of sambuca. Maybe I’m partial to version 2 because I can wholly call it my own (version 1 was a Betty and Ruth collaboration), but I liked the subtle flavor of the liqueurs I used to finish, preferring to let the seafood be the star, as opposed to Saturday’s soup with its long pastis finish. I guess I’m all about subtlety.

It felt really good to make a good meal out of random odds and ends of ingredients. I’m thinking that as long as there is really good fish scrap, I’ll be making really good fish soups all summer. Hmm, next up, fish chowder?

Monday was actually pretty slow, with about 120 covers. But because I’d not been on station 3 for a week, and we had a couple of menu changes, my nerves were in a bit of a state. Katie on 1 felt the same way because her station had a new chicken dish and a pork shoulder change since she’d last worked. The two of us are kind of similar and get along really well because of that.

The new pasta dish on my station is really tasty. It’s pappardelle with pork neck ragu, charred fennel and olives. Of course, I had to deal with the parcooked pappardelle sticking to eachother and it was a freaking bitch to deal with. It wasn’t until I left the pasta out at room temperature that they became a touch easier to peel but I still encountered some difficulties. If peeling pasta on a Monday night is annoying, I shudder to think about what it would be like on a Friday or Saturday night. Gross.

The new whitefish dish on 3 is super pretty and delicious too. Tonight it was manageable but it’s gonna be crazy on the later days because it’s definitely looking to be a popular menu item. Armanzo said of his last couple days on 3 he was “raped” by order-fires. I’m scared to be in his shoes. I once helped him plate 6 pastas. I’ve never even had to fire 6 of anything at once yet…. Urgh… I know there will be a time like that coming eventually but still! Scared of the unknown.

Speaking of unknown, I came into work Sunday and one of my knives (my Wusthof) was missing. At first I thought I’d just left it out and some benevolent soul was safekeeping it for me but it can’t be because for this particular knife, I use a metal honing steel… and the steel was in my locker. And the Wusthof has a knife guard…and the knife guard was in my locker. I asked around today if anyone had seen it but so far nothing. I should probably be a little relieved that it was not my Ohishi that went missing but still, I’m partial to that knife. I’m not afraid to bang up my Wusthof, whereas the Ohishi still has that new-knife-sheen to it that makes me a little apprehensive to use it as hard as I’d like. Also the Ohishi has more delicate metal or something which is also a slight drawback.
Anyway, the point is: where the eff is my knife? Did someone borrow it and forget to return it? Or did someone steal it and I’m not gonna get it back? Damn….

I took the initiative today and actually talked Elliot into letting me sell our mushroom salad (recently taken off the menu) as a special since we still had all the place for it. We ended up selling quite a bit. Despite my elation at this “big girl” move, until I figure out the status of my missing knife, everything else is just minor details.